tions and counties at large, there is sometimes kept a special or petty session," by a few justices, for dispatching smaller business in the neighborhood between the times of the general sessions; as, for licensing ale-houses, passing the accounts of the parish officers, and the like." tourn. 9. The sheriff's tourn, or rotation, is a court of record, held [273] twice every year, within a month after Easter and Michael- Sheriff's mas, before the sheriff, in different parts of the county; being, indeed, only the turn of the sheriff to keep a court-leet in each respective hundred.w This, therefore, is the great court-leet of the county, as the county court is the court baron; for out of this, for the ease of the sheriff, was takent ▾ 4 Inst., 259; 2 Hal., P. C., 69; 2 Hawk., P. C., 55. offenses and matters cognizable by any court of quarter sessions of the peace for counties; except that the recorder may not make a county rate, nor grant alehouse licenses, nor exercise any of the powers specially vested by the act in the council of the borough. By s. 106, the mayor, in the absence of the recorder or his deputy, is authorized to open and adjourn the court, and respite recognizances. Sect. 107 enacts, that all powers and jurisdictions to try treasons, capital felonies, and all other criminal jurisdiction whatsoever, granted or confirmed by any law, statute, letters-patent, grant, or charter, to any mayor or other corporate or chartered officer, shall cease after the 1st of May, 1836. By s. 108, all chartered admiralty jurisdictions are also abolished. And by s. 134, and by the 6 & 7 Will. IV., c. 105, s. 10, provision is made for the continuance of the courts of quarter sessions holden in the Cinque Ports. w Mirr., c. 1, § 13 and 16. A subsequent statute, 1 Vict., c. 78, s. 49, empowers the crown to grant a charter of incorporation to any town or borough not already incorporated, and to extend to the inhabitants thereof all the powers and provisions of the 5 & 6 Will. IV., c. 76. (26) There is a difference between special and petty sessions; and see 1 B. & Ald., 588; 2 B. & Ald., 228.—[CHITTY.]* (27) The stat. 6 & 7 Will. IV., c. 96, s. 6, requires that justices in petty sessions shall hold four special sessions in the year, to hear and determine appeals against poor rates of the several parishes within their divisions, giving twentyeight days' public notice; but their jurisdiction is restricted to objections on the ground of inequality, unfairness, or incorrectness in the valuation of the hereditaments, &c., included in the rate. In New York there is a court called the Court of Special Sessions, which may be held in all the counties of the state except New York. It has power to hear and determine, among other matters, all cases of larceny, where the value of the property stolen does not exceed $25; and all cases of assault and battery not committed riotously, or upon a public officer in the execution of the duties of his office. The court is composed of three magistrates; a judge of the county court and two justices of the peace, or three justices without a judge. It has not the power to try the offender but with his consent, or unless he omits for twentyfour hours after requirement to give bail for his appearance at the next criminal court having cognizance of the matter. The accused may demand a trial by jury (the number of which in this court is six instead of twelve); but unless such demand is made, the trial takes place before the magistrates, who, on conviction, may inflict the punishment of fine and imprisonment; the fine, however, can not exceed $50, nor the imprisonment six months.-(2 R. S., 711 to 714.) A Court of Special Sessions is authorized to be held in the city and county of New York, but it is organized differently from what it is in the other counties of the state.-(2 R. S., 714, 15.) Sheriff's are forbidden to hold courts for any purpose whatever, except to execute writs of inquiry in the assessment of damages, to inquire into claims of property seized or levied upon by him, or to execute such special writs as may be directed to him.-(2 R. S, 286, § 58.) 10. Court leet, or view of frank pledge. 10. The court leet, or view of frank-pledge, which is a court of record, held once in the year and not oftener,y within a particular hundred, lordship, or manor, before the steward of the leet; being the king's court, granted by charter to the lords of those hundreds or manors. Its original intent was to view the frank-pledges, that is, the freemen within the liberty; who (we may remember), according to the institution of the great Alfred, were all mutually pledges for the good behavior of each other. Besides this, the preservation of the peace, and the chastisement of divers minute offenses against the public good, are the objects both of the court leet and the sheriff's tourn; which have exactly the same jurisdiction, one being only a larger species of the other, extending over more territory, but not over more causes. All freeholders within the precinct are obliged to attend them, and all persons commorant therein; which commorancy consists in usually lying there a regulation which owes its original to the laws of King Canute.a But persons under twelve and above sixty years old, peers, clergymen, women, and the king's tenants in ancient demesne, are excused from attendance there; all others being bound to appear upon the jury, if required, and make their due presentments. It was also anciently the custom to summon all the king's subjects, as they respectively grew to [274] years of discretion and strength, to come to the court leet, and there take the oath of allegiance to the king. The other general business of the leet and tourn was to present by jury all crimes whatsoever that happened within their jurisdiction; and not only to present, but also to punish, all trivial misdemeanors, as all trivial debts were recoverable in the court baron and county court; justice, in these minuter matters of both kinds, being brought home to the doors of every man by our ancient constitution. Thus, in the Gothic constitution, the hæreda, which answered to our court leet, "de omnibus quidem cognoscit, non tamen de omnibus judicat." The objects of their jurisdiction are, therefore, unavoidably very numerous; being such as in some degree, either less or more, affect the public weal or good governance of the district in which they arise; from common nuisances and other material offenses against the king's peace and public trade, down to eaves-dropping, waifs, and irregularities in public commons. But both the tourn and the leet have been for a long time in a declining way; a circumstance owing, in part, to the discharge granted by the statute of Marlbridge, 52 Hen. III., c. 10, to all prelates, peers, and clergymen, from their attendance upon these courts; which occasioned them to grow into disrepute. And hence it is that their business hath for the most part gradually devolved * 4 Inst., 261; 2 Hawk., P. C., 72. See vol. iii., page 113. a Part ii., c. 19. c. 2. Stiernhook, De Jure Goth., 1. 1, upon the quarter sessions; which it is particularly directed to do in some cases, by statute 1 Edw. IV., c. 2. the coroner. 11. The court of the coronere is also a court of record, to in- 11. Court of quire, when any one dies in prison, or comes to a violent or sudden death, by what manner he came to his end. And this he is only entitled to do super visum corporis." Of the coroner and his office we treated at large in a former volume,d among the public officers and ministers of the kingdom; and, therefore, shall not here repeat our inquiries, only mentioning his court, by way of regularity, among the criminal courts of the nation. the market. 12. The court of the clerk of the markete is incident to every [275] fair and market in the kingdom, to punish misdemeanors there- 12. Court of in as a court of pie poudre is, to determine all disputes relating the clerk of to private or civil property. The object of this jurisdictionf is principally the cognizance of weights and measures, to try whether they be according to the true standard thereof, or no; which standard was anciently committed to the custody of the bishop, who appointed some elerk under him to inspect the abuse of them more narrowly; and hence this officer, though now usually a layman, is called the clerk of the market. If they be not according to the standard, then, besides the punish e 4 Inst., 271; 2 Hal., P. C., 53; 2 Hawk., P. C., 42. d See vol. i., page 349. e 4 Inst., 273. (28) The finding of such inquest is equivalent to the finding of a grand jury; and, therefore, a woman tried on the coroner's inquest for the murder of her bastard child may be found guilty, under the statute, of endeavoring to conceal its birth, there being no distinction in this respect between the coroner's inquisition and a bill of indictment returned by the grand jury. 2 Leach, 1095; 3 Campb., 371; Russ. & Ry., C. C., 240. But in order to found an indictment on a coroner's inquest, the jurors, and not merely the coroner, must have subscribed it. Imp. Cor., 65.[CHITTY.]* The stat. 6 & 7 Vict., c. 83, s. 2, prevents coroners' inquisitions, and judgments thereon, from being liable to be quashed or reversed for the want of the averment therein of any matter unnecessary to be proved, or for certain technic # See stat. 17 Car. II., c. 19; 22 Car. Bacon of English Gov., b. 1, c. 8. al defects or omissions therein men- See the 6 & 7 Vict., c. 12, as to the As to the appointment and jurisdiction of coroners in boroughs, see the 5 & 6 Will. IV., c. 76, s. 62, 63, 64. In New York, it is the duty of the coroner, on receiving notice that any person has been slain, or has suddenly died, or has been dangerously wounded, to summon a jury to make inquiry into the matter; and if it be found that a murder, manslaughter, or assault has been committed, he may issue process for the arrest of the offender, whom he may commit to prison, or admit to bail (2 R. S.,742); but the inquisition is not equivalent to an indictment, so that the party charged with an offense can be tried upon it, as no person can be held to answer for a capital or other infamous crime unless on presentment or indictment of a grand jury.—(1 R. S., 93, § 12. See post, 309, note *.) II. CRIMIN- OF A PRI VATE AND TION. ment of the party by fine, the weights and measures themselves ought to be burned. This is the most inferior court of criminal jurisdiction in the kingdom; though the objects of its coercion were esteemed among the Romans of such importance to the public that they were committed to the care of some of their most dignified magistrates, the curule ædiles.* II. There are a few other criminal courts of greater dignity than many of these, but of a more confined and partial jurisdiction, extending only to some particular places which the royal favor, confirmed by act of Parliament, has distinguished by the privilege of having peculiar courts of their own for the punishment of crimes and misdemeanors arising within the bounds of their cognizance. These, not being universally dispersed, or of general use, as the former, but confined to one spot, as well as to a determinate species of causes, may be denominated private or special courts of criminal jurisdiction. I speak not here of ecclesiastical courts, which punish spiritual sins, rather than temporal crimes, by penance, contrition, and excommunication, pro salute anima; or, which is looked upon as equivalent to all the rest, by a sum of money to the of [276] ficers of the court by way of commutation of penance. Of these we discoursed sufficiently in the preceding book. I am now speaking of such courts as proceed according to the course of the common law, which is a stranger to such unaccountable barterings of public justice. 1. Court of lord stew ard, treasurer, or controller of king's household. 2. Court of lord stew. 1. And, first, the court of the lord steward, treasurer, or controller of the king's household, was instituted by statute 3 Hen. VII, c. 14, to inquire of felony by any of the king's sworn servants, in the check-roll of the household, under the degree of a lord, in confederating, compassing, conspiring, and imagining the death or destruction of the king, or any lord or other of his majesty's privy council, or the lord steward, treasurer, or controller of the king's house. The inquiry, and trial thereupon, must be by a jury, according to the course of the common law, consisting of twelve sad men (that is, sober and discreet persons) of the king's household." 2. The court of the lord steward of the king's household, or ard of king's (in his absence) of the treasurer, controller, and steward of household. the marshalsea,k was erected by statute 33 Hen. VIII., c. 12, with a jurisdiction to inquire of, hear, and determine all treasons, misprisions of treason, murders, manslaughters, bloodshed, h See vol. iii., page 61. i 4 Inst., 133. * 4 Inst., 133; 2 Hal., P. C., 7. (29) The stats. 3 Hen. VII., c. 14, and 33 Hen. VIII., c. 12, are repealed by the 9 Geo. IV., c. 31, whereby the jurisdiction of these courts has become obsolete. * In New York there are no fairs or markets similar to those spoken of in the text; and, consequently, there is no such office as clerk of the market, except in some of the cities under the older charters of incorporation. and other malicious strikings, whereby blood shall be shed in, or within the limits (that is, within two hundred feet from the gate) of any of the palaces and houses of the king, or any other house where the royal person shall abide. The proceedings are also by jury, both a grand and a petit one, as at common law, taken out of the officers and sworn servants of the king's household. The form and solemnity of the process, particularly with regard to the execution of the sentence for cutting off the hand, which is part of the punishment for shedding blood in the king's court, are very minutely set forth in the said statute 33 Hen. VIII., and the several officers of the serv- [277] ants of the household in and about such execution are described; from the sergeant of the wood-yard, who furnishes the chopping-block, to the sergeant farrier, who brings hot irons to sear the stump." 3. As in the preceding book' we mentioned the courts of the two universities, or their chancellors' courts, for the redress of civil injuries, it will not be improper now to add a short word concerning the jurisdiction of their criminal courts, which is equally large and extensive. The Chancellor's Court of Oxford (with which University the author has been chiefly conversant, though probably that of Cambridge hath also a similar jurisdiction) hath authority to determine all causes of property wherein a privileged person is one of the parties, except only causes of freehold, and, also, all criminal offenses or misdemeanors under the degree of treason, felony, or mayhem. The prohibition of meddling with freehold still continues; but the trial of treason, felony, and mayhem, by a particular charter, is committed to the university jurisdiction in another court, namely, the Court of the Lord High Steward of the University. 3. Courts of universities. For by the charter of 7 Jun., 2 Hen VI. (confirmed, among the rest, by the statute 13 Eliz., c. 29), cognizance is granted to the University of Oxford of all indictments of treasons, insurrections, felony, and mayhem which shall be found in any of the king's courts against a scholar or privileged person, and they are to be tried before the high steward of the University, or his deputy, who is to be nominated by the chancellor of the University for the time being. But when his office is called forth into action, such high steward must be approved by the lord high chancellor of England, and a special commission un der the great seal is given to him, and others, to try the indictment then depending, according to the law of the land and the privileges of the said University. When, therefore, an indict- [278] ment is found at the assizes, or elsewhere, against any scholar of the University, or other privileged person, the vice-chancellor may claim the cognizance of it, and (when claimed in due time 1 See vol. iii., page 83. (30) See n. (29) in preceding page. |